EXPLAINING CHILDREN ON YOUTUBE: THE CASE OF INDONESIAN SUBSCRIBER BEHAVIORAL INTENTION ON KIDZ YOUTUBE CHANNEL

Understanding children's behavior and intentions to subscribe to YouTube channels are important for production companies and parents. This study analyzed factors influencing children’s behavioral intention to subscribe to YouTube channels using UTAUT 2 model and SEM-PLS analysis. The samples were 100 kids aged 7 to 12 who live in the Greater Jakarta area. Data were collected through an online questionnaire. The results showed that habit and social influence significantly influenced children’s behavioral intention to use Kidz YouTube Channel. Children’s behavioral intention to use Kidz YouTube Channel significantly influenced children’s usage behavior. Moreover, children’s usage behavior significantly influenced their intention to subscribe to Kidz's YouTube Channel. The study indicated that children’s decision to subscribe to YouTube channels was simple and relied on their habits and social influence. Therefore, parents need to supervise children’s activities on YouTube. Meanwhile, the content creator company could optimize a routine schedule for uploading a new video based on selected themes and also needs to increase parents’ awareness of the safety of their program.


INTRODUCTION
The rapid convergence and usage of the Internet and smartphone have drastically impacted lifestyles since the beginning of the millennium era. Everyone can communicate with others in any country more quickly (Kurniawati & Arifin, 2015). Social media usage is increasing due to human behavioral changes in social interaction, seeking information, and entertainment. Social media is not only used for communication but also as marketing media. Many Indonesians use YouTube to find information and entertainment, ranking YouTube third (15.1%) with 14.5 million users among other social media after Facebook (50.7%) and Instagram (17.8% Research shows that screen time is increased among young children while Internet use increases among adolescents (Ofcom, 2019;Omar et al., 2014;Royal Children's Health National Child Health Poll, 2017). This can be due to the increasing cognitive, skills, physical and emotional changes experienced by children at this age which encourage them to explore new information and experience through media. As YouTube allows children to combine screen time and Internet use, this opportunity attracts many content creators targeting them as their users.
Content providers must pay attention to children's behavior, especially their intention in choosing the media to find entertainment. The second generation of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2) could examine children's high-technology and social media behavior. The model illustrated behavioral intention as an effect of performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating condition, hedonic motivation, price value, and habit (Venkatesh et al., 2003). These determinants explain users' behavior as an effect of behavioral intention and use behavior. A recent study used this model to explain consumer intention to subscribe to the music streaming application (Helkkula, 2016). Therefore, the model can be used to explain children's behavioral intention to subscribe to the Kidz YouTube Channel as their main source of entertainment.
The UTAUT is a complex model that associates many theories in one model to explain the link between determinants of human intention behavior on technology. The UTAUT model suggests that behavioral intention is an intermediary construct to describe information technology's perceived usage and actual use behavior. It can predict an individual's intention to do particular behavior (Venkatesh et al., 2003), directly affecting usage behavior (Atmojo et al., 2016;Jati & Laksito, 2012). Recent studies support the finding (Brünink, 2016;Martins, 2013;Miladinovic & Xiang, 2016;Vinnick, 2017).
In the UTAUT model, several important variables significantly influence user acceptance and usage behavior: performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, and facilitating conditions (Venkatesh et al., 2003). Over time, technology's rapid development has become one reason for treating new developments from the UTAUT model. The UTAUT model, originally developed to explain the acceptance and use of technology, was developed for other contexts, such as consumer technologies developed by the industry in the form of applications and services of technology targeting consumers (Venkatesh et al., 2012). This study uses UTAUT 2, which is the development of the original UTAUT model. The UTAUT 2 model aims to identify three important constructs from research on the use and acceptance of technology for both the public and consumers, change some of the existing relationships in the concept of the UTAUT model, and introduce new relationships. Three new constructs introduced at UTAUT 2 include hedonic motivation, price value, and habit. UTAUT 2 is appropriate because it is the latest technology acceptance theory indicating a unification, synthesis, or summary of eight preexisting theories or models of technology acceptance. Unlike UTAUT1, whose context is organizational, UTAUT 2 can explain technology acceptance, which is consumer use (Venkatesh et al., 2012).
This concept explains that user acceptance is a reaction to using technology and information systems (usage behavior) that can occur through forming a behavioral intention to use beforehand. UTAUT 2 is a model resulting from synthesizing several user acceptance models introduced previously. Behavioral intention to use is formed by performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, hedonic motivation, price value, and habit. This research will empirically study the factors influencing consumer interest in subscribing to one of the children's YouTube Channel content, which is implemented using the UTAUT 2 approach.
Consumer behavior in choosing a means to find entertainment and product reviews is a concern in branding content. Research that has previously been studied includes research on consumer interest in subscribing to music streaming service applications (Helkkula, 2016). In his research, Helkkula analyzed the factors influencing interest in becoming a subscriber of a music streaming service application. The model used in this research is also the UTAUT 2 model.
Users can accept an innovation if the application and the new technology are easy to use. Furthermore, social influence plays a role in individual perception of their belief in using technology to different degrees (Venkatesh et al., 2012). The social influence significantly affected behavioral intention to use (Atmojo et al., 2016;Brünink, 2016). Thus, the social environment could increase one's degree of behavioral use. However, a recent study on mobile fashion shopping by Miladinovic and Xiang (2016) found that social influence did not significantly affect behavioral intention to use. It may be related to facilitating conditions as another determinant. Facilitating condition is the extent of the beliefs of a person on the availability of infrastructure techniques and organizations to support the use of technology (Chen & Chang, 2013;Jati & Laksito, 2012;Marheini, 2014;Venkatesh et al., 2003). It can describe different levels of an individual reception based on facilities and technical support to use new technology such as a system used, training, manual book, or others. Another determinant that could play a role is hedonic motivation. It is the joy and happiness of the user of technology (Venkatesh et al., 2012). Hedonic motivation significantly influences information technology usage (Cholifaturrosida et al., 2018;Jung et al., 2009). Furthermore, habit is associated with behavioral intention to use new technology. The new technology contributes to a person's habit development by doing something automatically and repetitively beyond the person's awareness of the learning process (Kim et al., 2005;Limayem et al., 2007).
Besides the determinants from the UTAUT 2 model, lifestyle and promotion influence behavioral intention. Understanding lifestyle as patterns in which people live and spend their time and money (Kaynak & Kara, 2001) will be useful in delivering timely services to particular target segments of ICT (Chen & He, 2006). Hence, e-lifestyle affects behavioral tendencies and intention (Kaynak & Kara, 2001;Kusumawardhana et al., 2012;Suraputra & Warmika, 2017), supported by lifestyle promotion. Promotion influences users' minds and opinions by communicating and persuading them (Lamb et al., 2001). Therefore, the promotion significantly affects the user's intention (Genchev & Todorova, 2017). These determinants could be added to the UTAUT model to explain children's behavior intentions on YouTube channels. Previous studies have mostly used the original UTAUT model without adding other variables. Thus, this research is different from previous studies, with the addition of e-lifestyle and promotion variables, which also serve as the state of the art of this research.
This research is very important given the increasing number of YouTube users. From the creator's side, the research findings will help creators or YouTube content owners identify the behavior of child consumers, especially the factors that influence children's interest in subscribing to YouTube Channel content. This can be a reference for creators in creating their brands so they can target the right audience. In addition, if the video gets a good reception, the number of viewers will increase as well, so creators have the opportunity to become part of the YouTube Partnership Program, enabling them to monetize the videos they have made (Labas & Yasmine, 2017). However, a problem arose that became one of the bases for this research: the decrease in the number of Kidz YouTube Channel subscribers from 37,519 to 24,983 subscribers.
This study aims to explain the factors that affect behavioral intention to subscribe to one of the Kidz YouTube Channel contents. The first objective was to analyze the effect of user determinants to subscribe toward behavioral intention. The second was to analyze the relation between children's behavioral intention towards usage behavior on Kidz YouTube Channel.
The hypotheses that will be answered in this study are as follows: H1: Performance expectancy has a significant effect on behavioral intention to use. H2: Effort expectancy has a significant effect on behavioral intention to use. H3: Social influence has a significant effect on behavioral intention to use. H4: Facilitating conditions have a significant effect on behavioral intention to use. H5: Hedonic motivation has a significant effect on behavioral intention to use. H6: Habit has a significant effect on behavioral intention to use. H7: E-Lifestyle has a significant effect on behavioral intention to use. H8: Promotion has a significant effect on behavioral intention to use. H9: Behavioral intention to use has a significant effect on usage behavior. H10: Usage behavior has a significant effect on behavioral intention to subscribe.
The UTAUT 2 model as the research framework to analyze the hypotheses is shown in Figure 1.

METHODS
This study applied a quantitative approach with survey techniques using a convenience sampling method. The sample criteria were Indonesian children aged 7-12 years who lived in Greater Jakarta (Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, Bekasi), subscribed to Kidz but did then unsubscribe, and were active users but did not subscribe to Kidz YouTube Channel. Active users access the content, watch the videos, like the videos, leave a comment, or share the videos. The researcher obtained subscribers and unsubscribers data (name and email) from Kidz YouTube Channel. Thus, the questionnaire was sent only to respondents who fit the criteria. The number of subscribers of the Kidz YouTube Channel at the time of research was 24,983 subscribers and 356 unsubscribes, and the data provided by the company was 150, which then set the initial target of the sample size. Of the 150 respondents, only 111 filled out the questionnaire, and 100 met the requirements and were included in the further analysis. This is one of the weaknesses of the study, as the results obtained cannot be generalized at the population level.
The data was collected through an online questionnaire using Google Forms. The questionnaire explains that parents must accompany the filling. In relation to consent, at the beginning of the questionnaire, it was explained that the data was confidential and that any personal data of the respondents would not be disclosed outside of the research interests. At the end of the informed consent, the respondent signs as a form of agreement to participate in the survey. The researcher also provided a contact number for detailed information regarding the survey. The questionnaire was developed by creating a statement or question to measure the variables from the adapted UTAUT 2 model. Then, the five-point Likert Scale was applied to measure each variable indicator. Each instrument answer was provided as strongly agree, agree, enough agree, disagree, and strongly disagree. First, the main variables (from the UTAUT 2 model), including effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, hedonic motivation, and habits, were used to explain behavioral intention to subscribe from the consumer perspective.
Next, e-lifestyle was added as a variable that explains the consumers to the model. Then, we included two variables, performance expectancy (from the UTAUT 2 model) and promotion, to describe the effect of company activities that influence users' behavioral intention to subscribe.
The measurement items of performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating condition, hedonic motivation, habit, behavioral intention to use, usage behavior, and behavioral intention to subscribe are developed by Helkkula (2016). For e-lifestyle, the items were adopted from Hassan et al. (2015), and promotion was generated by Genchev and Todorova (2017 The obtained data were analyzed using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM)-PLS and description analysis. In addition, a Partial Least Square was used to verify the measurement and structural model relations. The tool can handle various data, from nonmetric to metric, that analyzes reflective and formative measurement models and latent variables with one indicator without an identification problem (Hair et al., 2010).

Respondents Profile
Girls' respondents dominated with 62 percent, far above boys, whose percentage was only 38 percent. The highest percentage of Asta And Kidz content users are children aged 11 years (24%), followed by children aged 9 years (20%), 10 and 12 years (17% each), 8 years (13%), and 7 years (9%). The majority of Asta And Kidz content users live in the Jabodetabek area (60%), followed by the Java (non-Jabodetabek) region (18%) and Sumatra (12%). Most Asta And Kidz content users are middle children in their families.

Usage Behavior
Children's usage of YouTube channels includes watching time, duration of watching, the number of videos watched at one time, the benefits of watching, and subscribing behavior. The children's YouTube usage behavior is shown in Table 1.
The research results also showed that 63 percent of children were interested in subscribing to content, whereas 59 percent expressed their plan to subscribe. In addition, as many as 53 percent who subscribed to Kidz content were children, 27 percent were parents, 15 percent were siblings of children, and the remaining 5 percent were children's friends.

Behavioral Intention to Subscribe
The distribution of respondents' answers according to the classification of score levels and the number of choices of respondents' answers from each statement about behavioral intention to subscribe is used to determine respondents' interests and plans to subscribe to content. Respondents interested in subscribing to content (63%) are greater than respondents who plan to subscribe to content (59%).
Respondents wanted to subscribe to content with the aim of not being left behind with the latest Kidz videos (96%), and looking for entertainment (2%). Others were looking for interesting videos, wanted always to support Kidz content, got reviews of the latest toys, were happy to see Kak Alis and Kak Alvin (the Kidz actress & actor), and were able to see robot toys.

Structural Model of SEM
The analysis found that four out of ten hypotheses were accepted ( Table 2). The accepted hypotheses were H3, H6, H9, and H10. These hypotheses in the model are considered significant because their t-statistic values were higher than 1.96. The value shows a relation between variables. use the Kidz YouTube Channel. Children's addiction to accessing and watching increased their intention to engage in Kidz YouTube Channel. At the same time, their addiction to liking, commenting, and sharing content was lower than the previous addiction. Children were found to have a lower habit of watching a new video directly, watching the same video repeatedly, and knowing the schedule of new videos that will be uploaded. These findings suggest that habit affects consumer intention more often (Venkatesh et al., 2012). Therefore, the viewer's habit of accessing and watching the Kidz videos will increase their intention to use the channel regularly. The results also indicate that most children access the Internet using a smartphone to watch videos because they like to discover new things online and watch video content between 15 to 30 minutes, with the number of videos watched each time accessing being more than four. Children watched most videos in the afternoon after they returned from school. Entertainment is the benefit of watching video content most expressed by respondents.

DISCUSSION
People who subscribed to content based on research results are their children, and children subscribed to the Kidz YouTube Channel because they wanted to stay updated on the latest videos.
Social influence is the next important factor influencing children's intention to use Kidz YouTube Channel. Social influence significantly affects behavioral intention to use Kidz YouTube Channel because children around 7 to 12 years old rely on recommendations from their social ties. Children tend to be influenced by people around them who are involved in watching, liking, commenting, or sharing Kidz videos. The findings show that parents, siblings, and friends influenced children's behavior and intention to use Kidz YouTube Channel. Interestingly, children connected socially to actors or actresses on Kidz YouTube Channel through interaction via comments and likes. Therefore, these actors or actresses were found as the most influential person for children in their intention to use Kidz YouTube Channel. The findings align with previous studies that improved social influence significantly affects behavioral intention to use since social influence references suggest using a new application or system (Atmojo et al., 2016). Thus, individual behavior is affected by how they trust others and the social status that motivates them to use the new technology. This study implies that the content creator needs to engage parents by providing information and the benefits of watching Kidz videos.
Moreover, the actors and actresses have to motivate their users to participate in giving likes, comments, and sharing the video they watched. It will increase the effect on their friends' behavioral intention to use the Kidz channel as well. Both childhood and the media environment are changing and co-determining each other. Children grow up in a convergent media ecology whereby significant opportunities for sociability, self-expression, learning, creativity, and participation are provided by online media and, increasingly, mobile media.
According to Bujizen and Valkenburg (2010), children between 9 to 10 years old start to lose interest in toys and prefer products with a social function, such as music and sports equipment. They are also primarily interested in products and entertainment designed for adults. Although children's consumer behavior continues to develop during adolescence and adulthood, by age 12, children have become acquainted with all aspects of their consumer behavior, at least in a rudimentary form. Typically, they can (1) feel their wants and preferences (as early as infancy and toddlerhood); (2) search to fulfill them (as early as the preschool period); (3) make a choice and a purchase (from the early elementary school period on); and (4) evaluate a product and its alternatives (as early as the later elementary school period).
Children's behavioral intention to use Kidz YouTube Channel significantly influenced their usage behavior (Atmojo et al., 2016;Jati & Laksito, 2012;Venkatesh et al., 2003). Children's intention to use content is manifested in their activities, such as watching, commenting, and sharing videos. Four indicators of behavioral intention to use Kidz YouTube Channel contributed to the usage behavior: children's interest in accessing the content, children's interest in watching the content, children's interest in liking the content, and children's plan to watch the video content. The other indicators were valid but had a lower percentage. Therefore, these behavioral intentions were an intermediary construct between children's perception of the Kidz YouTube Channel and their actual use behavior.
In the final pathway, children's usage behavior significantly affects their behavioral intention to subscribe to Kidz YuoTube Channel. The finding suggests that behavioral intention could be measured by the possibility of the children's usage behavior to act in the future. Two indicators that validate children's behavioral intention to subscribe to Kidz YoutTube Channel are children's interest in subscribing and Vol. 16, 2023 BEHAVIORAL INTENTION ON KIDZ YOUTUBE CHANNEL 195 children's plan to subscribe to Kidz YouTube Channel. It implies children's intention to subscribe to Kidz YouTube Channel is based on a simple pathway. Their intention to subscribe depends on their usage of the application, whereas children's usage of the application is suggested by their intention to use it. In addition, children's habits and social influencers affect their intention to use the application. According to Livingstone et al. (2011), parental mediation is typically developed in five main forms: (1) Couse and active mediation of internet use involve parents discussing with their children what they do online, sharing their online activities and sitting with them while they are online; (2) Active mediation of internet safety entails parents promoting safer uses of the Internet, giving advice on risks, and helping children when something on the Internet bothers them; (3) Restrictive mediation entails parents setting rules that limit children's media use (by time or activities); (4) Monitoring refers to parents checking available records concerning the child's internet use; and (5) Technical restrictions entail the use of software to filter, restrict, and monitor the child's internet use.
As the previous paragraph suggests that Indonesian children were quite straightforward in deciding their intention to use Kidz YouTube Channel, the simple mindset also explains the reason why their intention to use was not influenced by other factors such as performance expectancy, effort expectancy, facilitating condition, hedonic motivation, e-lifestyle, and promotion. Children's mindsets may not consider these factors as important factors. These factors may be related to adults' intentions rather than children's. For example, performance expectancy was found to contradict previous studies by Brünink (2016), Jung et al. (2009), Miladinovic and Xiang (2016, Vinnick (2017), and Venkatesh and Davis (2000). These previous studies found performance expectancy the most influential variable towards behavioral intention to use. The difference may be caused by the fact that children were not paying attention to the video performance when they wanted to watch Kidz YouTube Channel.
Similarly, behavioral intention to engage in Kidz YoutTube Channel did not significantly influence effort expectancy. The result contradicts prior studies that claimed effort expectancy influences behavioral intention to use (Chen & Chang, 2013;Jati & Laksito, 2012;Sarbani et al., 2013;Van der Heijden, 2004). Hence, facilitating conditions were not significantly influence behavioral intention to use. Whereas previous studies by Chen and Chang (2013), Jati and Laksito (2012), and Marhaeni (2014) found that facilitating conditions influenced the intention to use. The difference may come from the fact that most children from 7 to 12 years old were controlled to use gadgets by their parents, limiting their access to watch Kidz YouTube Channel.
Furthermore, hedonic motivation might not come in the children's mindset. The children's mindset was too simple compared with adults; therefore, hedonic motivation was not significantly influenced children's behavioral intention to use. The findings differ from studies by Cholifaturrosida et al. (2018) and Helkkula (2016) that observed hedonic motivation in adults' mindsets. These circumstances suggest that hedonic motivation influences behavior intention to use information technology for adults (Jung et al., 2009). Therefore, the situation is reasonable for e-lifestyle not to influence children's behavioral intention to use Kidz YouTube Channel. Studies for adults by Kaynak and Kara (2001), Kusumawardhana et al. (2012), and Suraputra and Warmika (2017) claimed that lifestyle significantly affects behavioral intention. Unlike adults, children between 7 and 12 years old are limited to internet access and could not adopt this factor as their lifestyle since adults control their access to the Internet. Consequently, promotion did not significantly influence children's behavioral intention to use Kidz YouTube Channel.

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION
In order to approach children and gain their interest, content creator companies need to increase parents' and family's awareness about the benefit and safety of using the company's YouTube content, such as optimizing their social media, inserting a message by the children's favorite actor or actress, and setting up a regular schedule of Kidz YouTube Channel videos based on different video themes. In addition, parents must control their children's usage and subscription; they also need to know children's attention towards actors and actresses on YouTube Channel that can be children's role models and references for social and ethical norms.
The limitation of this research is that the study cannot be generalized due to the absence of the random sampling method. Second, there is possible bias due to the self-administered questionnaire essay, which can increase the possibility of misunderstanding between the researcher's intention and children's and parents' comprehension. Third, the UTAUT2 model is based on studies of adults' behavior and decision-making theory. Fourth, the study results could not be generalized at the population level. Future studies should be developed by targeting a larger sample based on randomized methods, so the results can be generalized to give a foundation for more studies in the future. Moreover, other qualitative, focus group discussion, and ethnography research methods could better explain children's behavior and decision-making process.
The study implies several implications for the content creator companies producing Kidz videos. First, to approach children and gain their interest, it is essential to increase parents' and family's awareness about the benefit and safety of using the company's YouTube content. The approach can optimize social media such as Facebook and Instagram. Furthermore, inserting a message to like, comment on, and share each video by the actor or actress can increase the impact on children's social networks (friends). Finally, children's habits can be increased by repeating their activity to access and watch the content by setting up a regular schedule of Kidz YouTube Channel videos based on different video themes. For example, videos about children's toy tutorials can be uploaded every Monday, and storytelling videos every Tuesday.
The contribution of the results of this study to the UTAUT model theory, with the initial model that affects user acceptance and usage behavior, is performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, and facilitating conditions developed by Venkatesh et al. (2003). However, the research findings found no significant effect of the two added variables; e-lifestyle and promotion. In addition, among variables derived from the UTAUT model, only two of the six variables affect behavioral intention to use, namely social influence and habit. This means that this study only confirms the effect of two variables, social influence and habit, on behavioral intention to use.
For the family, parents should control children's access to gadgets, as the Internet defines the factors influencing their intention to subscribe to YouTube Channels. Therefore, parents must control their children's usage and subscription to ensure healthy and safe Internet engagement. Furthermore, parents also need to know children's attention towards actors and or actresses on YouTube Channels because these behaviors can be children's role models and references for social and ethical norms.
Based on this study, other researchers can develop a model based on children's behavior and intention that influences children's interest in subscribing to YouTube content that can be developed and used for future studies. Children's behavior of watching, liking, commenting, or sharing videos can also be explored further.
For policymakers in the family and consumer sciences field, educating parents and children to be wise and responsible in using Youtube and other social media is necessary. In addition, assistance must be carried out by parents so that children have an understanding of the videos they watch.